Font Size: 

Fatigue crack propagation in cold-formed corners of high-strengthstructural steel plate-type structures has been investigated. Large- and small-scale testspecimens having complex residual stress states and subject to multi-axial cyclicloading have been investigated using both laboratory tests and numerical simulations.Straight, zig-zag and “S” shaped cracks were observed depending on the materialstrength, range of cyclic loading, residual stress field and multi-axiality of the appliedloading. Numerical simulations of residual stresses and linear elastic fracturemechanics were used to help understand the alternate crack paths.